why can't I see the menu bar of a vi in a subpanel

[DougFerguson]

As the title says, why can't I see the run-time menu of the VI I inserted into a sunpanel?

[smercurio_fc]

This is by design (and also stated in the LabVIEW Help). The subpanel only displays the front panel of the VI. The run-time menu is not considered part of the front panel.

[mikeporter]

... However, if you really need access to a menubar, you can pass a reference to the calling VI's menu to the VI in the subpanel and manipulate it from there (create/delete menus, handle selections, etc...). Just be sure the plugin VI cleans up after itself when it closes.

Mike...

[DougFerguson]

I read the Help and understand it is on purpose, however why?

I have functionality in the Run-Time menu that I want the user to access. I ended up hacking the same functionality with a tab control. It doesn't look as nice but it gets the job done.

[mikeporter]

The why is really rather simple: Logically a window can only have one menubar. So if you want a subVI to interact with a menubar that is the one it has to use and the way to get to it is through the menu reference from the top-level VI. In use this is actually a very clean and systematic way of implementing the functionality.

Mike...

[DougFerguson]

I know how to interact with menu items in multiple VIs programmically, however how do I display the subVI's RTM when it is placed in the subpanel so that the user can select the RTM items from the subVI?

Message Edited by doug@southerndaqsolutions.com on 01-05-2009 03:04 PM

[smercurio_fc]

Mike already gave you the answer in reply #3: pass a reference for the calling VI's menubar to the subVI, and have the subVI modify the parent VI's menubar.

[rolfk]

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doug@southerndaqsolutions.com wrote:
I know how to interact with menu items in multiple VIs programmically, however how do I display the subVI's RTM when it is placed in the subpanel so that the user can select the RTM items from the subVI?

Message Edited by doug@southerndaqsolutions.com on 01-05-2009 03:04 PM

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As explained you can't and LabVIEW does not allow this for a good reason. It is accepted knowledge in UI design and considered bad UI behaviour to have a menu other than a context popup or anywhere else than under the title bar.

LabVIEW adheres to that and most probably would have to jump through a few hops too to actually make this possible at all.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[DougFerguson]

No he didn't answer why, he just offered an alternate solution. However modifying the parent menubar wouldn't work in my case.

But thanks, this is all I was looking for "It is accepted knowledge in UI design and considered bad UI behaviour to have a menu other than a context popup or anywhere else than under the title bar."

Message Edited by doug@southerndaqsolutions.com on 01-05-2009 06:19 PM

[mikeporter]

Not to make too much of it, but I did tell you why: A subpanel can't have a menubar of its own because (to quote myself), "...Logically a window can only have one menubar...". Maybe not as classy as Rolf's statement - but then Rolf is a classier guy.

Mike...